Pentatonix Hallelujah! It’s a Christmas Tour
Katie 
Thursday night, Pentatonix kicked off their Christmas Tour at Mohegan Sun in the Arena. The whole band seemed to really love the venue and talked multiple times about how much they enjoy playing there and should include it on all of their tours. Since it was their first show of the tour I tried to keep really good notes on the setlist since I had nothing else to base off of and I wasn’t sure it anyone else would keep track. It was a good thing that I did because while someone did get to setlist.fm before me, they were a bit off with what was sung.
I have seen a lot of memes about how “My Favorite Things” and “Hallelujah” are not Christmas songs – but both of these were in the set. They did say that “My Favorite Things” was more of a spooky Christmas song before playing it. (And an also completely not Christmas song, which they admitted, was Wicked’s “What is this Feeling” was done in Act 2)
Another fun part of the show was the WHEEL! OF! CHRISTMAS! Which they spun 4 times – which got them to sing mini arrangements of Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, Sleigh Ride, Just for Now and Making Christmas. (Another spooky one)
There was an approximately 20 minute intermission.
My favorite Christmas song to sing, by far, is Carol of the Bells, so I was a little bit bummed when they started out their set with it. BUT! Then Scott came out much later in the set and said that he wanted to record a TikTok with us – and it was Carol of the Bells! He split us so the sides were doing ding dongs and then the center was the BOMMMMmmmm…. Then he decided it would be really cool if we could also make our phone lights go on/off based on when we were singing so we could visualize the bells and that’s where he lost me – apparently I can’t sing AND cover and uncover my flashlight at the same time. I’m looking forward to seeing how it came out.
The B-stage was pretty close to me so I was excited when they made their way out there for 5 songs and then all made their way back up through the crowd during O Come All Ye Faithful. Scott teased that it was nice to meet everyone when he made his way back to the stage.
There were a couple of moments where they made me feel really old though – Kirsten mentioned that she was loving Wicked since she was 10 – I saw the Original Broadway Cast when I was in college (20yrs old) and then Scott talked about freaking out over getting a game cube for Christmas when he was 8. I think I was gearing up to graduate high school or thereabouts when that one came out. I may have even been selling them at Toys R Us when they first came out… (insert grandma emoji here)
After they left the stage, before the encore, it was the most people leaving the venue I had ever seen. Unfortunately that meant when they tried to do a more traditional acapella song for the encore with just a mic in between them all, there was a LOT of noise coming from the concourse. They did a medley of Pure Imagination from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory mixed with Peanuts Christmas Time is Here, which seems like it would be a bit of an odd pairing, but somehow it worked! And they finished out the show with Joyful Joyful.
Unfortunately about halfway driving up to the casino I realized my camera was sitting on my desk… so I was stuck in the back of the arena with just my phone’s camera.
